Joey!!!!

Smallest paid attendance in GABp history

That's just sad. Under 10K in the house. Apparently, even a giant television screen at the stadium can't pull people away from their couches. And on a beautiful evening, too. Because, you know, who really wants to experience life when you can dumb down with Dancing with the Stars or whatever is on tonight? (Ok, yeah, so we're in a bit of a recession - but we can't get better if you don't spend, people! Get out your thin wallets and buy a $5 ticket!)

But hey, tomorrow we're getting together in DC to watch a game together since we can't actually be at the ballpark. Should be fun!

On another note, it's time to do something about Lincoln.

Screw Clear Channel

And screw the recession.

Inaugural Meeting of Displaced Reds Fan Club, Washington DC Chapter

The details:

Wednesday, April 29 7pm @ Solly's on U Street. The bartender is a Reds fan. The goal is to meet once a month and take over the bar by the end of the season!

I wonder...

When will the "surprising Reds" articles come out?

In the bell jar

I've been in the bell jar for awhile. I've started posts, worked on them some more, and just didn't complete them because I just can't seem to get the words out. I enjoy watching the Reds and the team definitely seems different this year, but the central part of my days so far hasn't been baseball but actual work. I'm working with a Lebanese development organization and will be tasked with grantwriting, among other things. This morning I thought this was going to be a good day because I got to go to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing in which Secretary of State Clinton was speaking, and though I got there at 8:15 for a 9:30 hearing, there were so many linejumpers and protest groups that by the time I approached the door, the hearing was full. I was third in the new, dejected line. I had been so excited to get to do something for work that I would have done in my free time that at one point I almost felt like crying, I was so bummed about not getting to go in. Still very cool to see members of Congress roaming the hall.

But to baseball, that lovely game with the little white sphere. I was supposed to go to the Nationals game tonight. Then I thought I mixed up the dates so I canceled, and when I found out I had been right the first time, I decided I was too drained to go to the game tonight. And for me not to go to a baseball game...(To be honest, if the Reds were playing, I'd go.) But, you know, it's too cold to go see a team that's only won three games. There are 150 more games - I'll get to that new park sometime soon.

All that and still I've said nothing. I wanted to write about how I have this feeling that baseball really is growing in popularity because all week long I've overheard people talk about baseball and so many people seem to be wearing baseball caps with actual baseball teams on them, and teams other than the one with the big red B on them, although there have been plenty of those as well. I know it's the beginning of the season and there is always more interest in the game at this time of year, but something feels different about the levels of enthusiasm I'm seeing. And that's why I maintain that I'm still in the bell jar, because I just can't find the words to explain that feeling properly.

And now I have work to do that I didn't finish today. It's soooo nice to have work to do.

Keith and Rachel talk baseball

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I don't know what to say about the Reds

This is bizarre, and by this, I mean everything. The offense has stunk, the defense has stunk, the pitching has stunk, yet there we sit, 6-5, a decent record at this point. This team is certainly different. Can anyone remember the last time we had to worry about scoring runs, and by that I mean on a regular basis?

Yet they're enough. They said the feel of the team was different this spring. There's definitely something unquantifiable about what's going on. Some call it "luck." Some call it "playing above potential." Some reference terms named after Greek mathematicians. Whatever it is, it's not something I feel we've seen in a long time. It's like the baseball gods are smiling on us for the first time in a very long time.

How else do you explain the second base ump's botched call at second which went the Reds' way and may have been the game changer? Or the fact that two errors in the first inning resulted in zero runs for the Asstros? The positive energy of the clubhouse, well, you know, perhaps there is something metaphysical about the whole thing, something beyond the realm of the three dimensional world we're accustomed to believing is the only thing that really exists about the world. Maybe the positive energy actually means something.

Or perhaps it's just luck. Either way, the no hitting is not sustainable. Even the baseball gods don't give away that many gifts. But hey, I'm loving the winning right now!

More reason to hate the Bankee$

So not only did the Bankee$ build a new mall that poses as a stadium, but they also destroyed a high school ballfield and didn't bother trying to help them with a new place to play.

For years the home baseball field for the All Hallows Gaels was at Macombs Dam Park. But the field and the park were demolished to make way for the new stadium. Without a home field, coaches have held baseball practices in the cafeteria and the gym, and the school had to spend $75,000 to buy two buses and is planning to buy a third for $25,000 because of the increased travel to and from games.

Hopefully since the Times pointed it out, the Bankee$ will do something about it. That new stadium is a crime!

I hope that stadium is cursed. I sure enjoyed that Swisher outing and the 22-4 rout yesterday.
___

Once upon a time...

For the second day in a row, Marty Brennaman has railed against Twitter and Facebook. Why? Is his raving any more pointless than what he claims Twitter to be?

The citizens of Moldova, a little landlocked country squeezed between Romania and Ukraine, would not take too kindly to Brennaman's dismissal of such a "stupid" thing as Twitter. When the Communist Party of Moldova "won" parliamentary elections at the beginning of April, Twitter was responsible for the protests that ensued. Because of Twitter, a 25 year old woman is under house arrest and could face up to 15 years in prison on a charge of "inciting mass disorder." Do you think Natalia Morar thinks Twitter is trivial?

Although the protests changed nothing in the political climate, they put Moldova on the map for a lot of people. Why is this important? Because the situation has the filthy hands of Russia all over it.

Twitter is new technology - people are still trying to figure out what to do with it. Natalia Morar found a way. Businesses are also starting to use it - Charmucks uses it to garner feedback from its customers, for example. Amazon discovered a catalog error through it, an error that had the potential to cause a social uproar and a boycott of its products. We're just beginning to discover how useful this technology can be.

One would think with Marty's refusal to join the rest of us in the 21st century, the Moldova situation would be on his radar, given that it reeks of the same elements that brought us the Cold War. But I doubt he cares about a tiny country whose name sounds like something out of a fairy tale.
___

RIP Harry Kalas

This puts a damper on home opener festivities in DC today: Harry Kalas dies.

Kalas, who had done the Phillies since 1971, was taken to a hospital Monday after passing out prior to the Washington Nationals-Phillies game in D.C.

A very sad day for baseball fans of all team persuasions. Kalas is a legend and will be missed.

This is a little late, but...

If you're like me, you think new Yankee Stadium is a crime, even if you hate the team that plays inside it.

A fan's perspective "The overall impression I got was that this place is a mall featuring a baseball field." Those of us who still feel a shred of humanity left in this consumer zombie world can understand exactly what he means by this.

Us Reds fans have had a brand new park - we've had a few of those in our very long existence, but our best years were in that cookie cutter on the river, and for me, it was the only stadium I knew. When they built our new park, they tried very hard to capture the spirit of the Cincinnati Reds, and it doesn't feel like a circus. But - they've just put in a massive HD television on an already giant scoreboard, and they've replaced the manual scoreboard in leftfield with more televisions. Televisions everywhere. The drug of the nation.

Opening Day

I'll have something up about Opening Day later on, but for a view from a Mets fan (and pics), visit here.

Also see here for pics and commentary on the Reds Hall of Fame Museum and Sunday's team workout at the ballpark.

There's a game preview up! A real game!

Monday weather update - it just keeps getting colder!

"Showers likely in the morning...then rain and snow showers likely in the afternoon. Highs in the lower 40s. Chance of precipitation 60 percent."

Ugh.

Just one thing

HOMER FOR FIFTH STARTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Last Spring Training game in Sarasota!

This is our most special time of year. We have the Spring Training game today (last one in Sarasota), followed by two exhibition games - the Reds are starting what will no doubt become a trend throughout baseball by playing what are billed as "futures games" to showcase what is about to become a Cincinnati dynasty (sit down, Chub$ - the twenty tens (is that what the next decade is called?) are ours.) Then there's that E$PN aberration on Sunday which will showcase the World Champs (what's gonna happen when the Reds win their next World Series? We won't have to play that Sunday night game, will we?) And finally, finally, the day that makes winter all worthwhile for what it builds for us, the anticipation, the waiting, it is all released into the glorious...SNOWY? day (Monday - Mostly cloudy with a 50 percent chance of showers. Much colder with highs in the lower 40s. Monday Night - Mostly cloudy. A chance of rain and snow showers in the evening. Colder with lows in the upper 20s. Chance of precipitation 40 percent.) Brr!

I'm so excited I can barely sit still.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday

Count 'em - four days until the Holy Day. I'm sitting outside pretending not to be cold. It's beautifully sunny but that wind is getting through my clothes. And this is warm compared to what is to come. I sure hope the forecast changes: "Cloudy with a 50 percent chance of showers. Colder with highs in the lower 50s."

Rainy and cold. NOO!

Trade rumors = stupid

"A GM called me and said, 'I heard you're close to making a deal,'" Jocketty said. "I said, 'With who?' He said, 'The Angels.' I haven't talked to their GM [Tony Reagins] since the Winter Meetings."